Where was God during the Las Vegas shooting?

[Kemosloby]

Obviously the devil got into the shooters mind, not God. Probably the mans love of sin, living in sin city as a gambler caused God to be far from him.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

God gave us the heroes who stopped the man. He also blessed us with the heroes on the ground that fit as many people into their cars as they could to get away. The nurses, the doctors, the paramedics, on and on.

He won't Interfer with free will to stop someone from doing something terrible. But He does help us deal with it when others use that free will against us.

But, that does involve god interfering with the free will of these doctors and EMTs and nurses, or else that would mean god let one person go on a shooting spree without ensuring these "heroes" would be educated in the correct fields to act on that day. If he gave them to us, he had to make sure first that they went to med school.

IF he was insane. I think the jury is still out on that.

When someone does such a thing, there is probably something very wrong and disturbed emotionally within them. For all we know, he may have been an undiagnosed psychopath and something sent him over the edge.

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

I think his question regarding that would be why God doesn't restrain Satan?

Reasons.

Have you read the book of Job?

A better question would be did they both read and understand Job.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Obviously the devil got into the shooters mind, not God.

Obviously ...

 

[YmirGF]

Obviously the devil got into the shooters mind, not God. Probably the mans love of sin, living in sin city as a gambler caused God to be far from him.

Or god was at the next table and the fellow just didn't notice.

 

[Mohsen]

In my view, he was clearly not insane. From everything I have read and watched the planning was too cold and calculated to be the result of a psychotic event. Though he may indeed have been suffering from some kind(s) of mental illness, he was, clearly, quite functional and well aware of what he was doing. He was, by all accounts, an educated man of means, living in comfortable retirement.

He was a terrorist, just not the media version! But terrorist, he was!!!

 

[YmirGF]

He was a terrorist, just not the media version! But terrorist, he was!!!

Thank you, Professor Einstein.

 

[Kemosloby]

Or god was at the next table and the fellow just didn't notice.

Yeah, well do as I say not as I do is sound advice in that case.

 

[Skwim]

While your quote is correct, perhaps you understanding of it isn't? When God creates 'evil' perhaps this other translation might help us understand what is being talked about:

"
7 I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I am the LORD, who does all these things.
"​

We see that God creates calamity, or evil, for the ones who are wicked. As he says, (Isaiah 57:21 " There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” "

But it isn't an either-or situation. No version of Isaiah 45:7 says god creates either evil or calamity. And calamity and evil are hardly equal creations.

How do you suggest stopping a mass murderer, or war, or the rich from exploiting the poor, that rich nations from exploiting the resources of the poor nations, etc.?

Well, I think good gun control laws would be an excellent first step in helping in stop mass murders. As for the rich exploiting the poor, this seems to be part of human nature: the powerful taking advantage of the less powerful. One of those things god has left us with.

Thanks, big guy

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[Akivah]

I always ask this question after something bad happens. It makes me mad when something good happens and everyone praises god for the great things he provides. But then something bad happens and god gave us free will. This just means stuff happens. Good and bad... stuff happens. God isn't controlling anything. If he's real, it makes me mad that he can just sit by and watch this stuff and do nothing about it. I struggle with religion. I've been reading a lot of books by Tim Keller and Case for Christ, and a few others. Once in a while, I'll start feeling like maybe there is something. But then something like Las Vegas or the Church shooting that just happened not too far from where I live here in Tennessee happens and then I ask, where was god? Was he just taking the day off? Does he not care? Or does he just not exist?

I believe that evil causes freewill. If evil didn't exist, then we wouldn't have freewill. Moses asked G-d why bad things happen to good people and G-d responded that this is the one thing that no human can ever comprehend. We can rationalize and speculate, but we will never know. I found the article below to be a good read.

http://www.aish.com/h/9av/aas/Wrestling-with-Suffering.html

 

[Skwim]

Beat me to it, dang it. But when you understand and accept the true meaning of this verse terms like "indifference" have little meaning when talking about a transcendent Deity

Why?

that also creates the word and meaning.

Excuse me! I believe the words we use and their meanings are things humans devise. Not god.

We do, however, have complete control over how we react to the world we live in.

Unfortunately we don't. We are often at the mercy of the 'whims" of our psychological and physiological make up.

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[Kelly of the Phoenix]

There were lots of heroes that day and not just police officers. It does you a disservice to ignore them.

None of those heroes stopped the bad guy, even "good guys with guns". There were heroes who helped deal with the victims, but none stopped the bad guy. I don't believe cops should take credit for a death someone else did. Sorry.

IF he was insane. I think the jury is still out on that.

That the hotel let a guy walk up to his room with a frickin' armory was insane, at least.

How do you suggest stopping a mass murderer, or war, or the rich from exploiting the poor, that rich nations from exploiting the resources of the poor nations, etc.?

If God can kill a guy just for trying to hold up a heavy golden box, I'm sure He has the ability to stop such things.

That's the problem with the bible: gives God superpowers, forgets them when Plot Contrivance demands.

The more that Humanity forgets God and lives a life that is not in tune with Gods Given Laws

The more humanity forgets that causing a ton of undeserved deaths is wrong, the more we can't have nice things.

Strangely people are calling it terrorism, yet terrorism usually has an aim beside mass killing.

I think we define it that way instead of "terrorism is to create terror" (which it certainly did) to ensure certain types of criminals (WASPs) don't get labeled "terrorists".

So far, only ISIS has claimed it as their attack.

ISIS would claim credit for hurricanes. They are desperate for attention.

But things like this bring back to me, if god really cares, why did he not do anything?

Caring and capable are two different things. I suspect we have greatly overestimated God's powers. Ancient gods and goddesses had limited "jurisdictions", as it were.

Obviously the devil got into the shooters mind, not God. Probably the mans love of sin, living in sin city as a gambler caused God to be far from him.

Or he could think God told him to do it.

Moses asked G-d why bad things happen to good people and G-d responded that this is the one thing that no human can ever comprehend.

Try us.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

He was a terrorist, just not the media version! But terrorist, he was!!!

At this point, it's impossible to label him as anything more than a mass shooter because we don't know his motives. For all we know, he just wanted to kill people and had no motives to qualify him as a terrorist.

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

He violently caused terror. That seems ample reason to consider him a terrorist.

 

[Skwim]

He violently caused terror. That seems ample reason to consider him a terrorist.

Let's not rob words of their meanings.

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[sayak83]

Well, we tend to blame him for the bad and just be happy for the good.

Please remember what on Bible writer said, (paraphrasing it) 'we live this life, and thereafter, there is judgment for what we have done.' Those who have done good get their reward and those who do or have done evil - get their reward. If then God stopped all from doing evil, where would judgment of evil happen? It could not. Then there would be no judgment of good either.

Do not blame the ones who do not do evil (God, in this case).

This is not the case for Christianity is it? Only those who believe in Jesus gets saved as, to God apparently, everybody is evil. Thus, the fate of many of the people who were killed by the shooter but did not believe in Jesus would be the same as the shooter himself, correct?

 

[Kemosloby]

None of those heroes stopped the bad guy, even "good guys with guns". There were heroes who helped deal with the victims, but none stopped the bad guy. I don't believe cops should take credit for a death someone else did. Sorry.


That the hotel let a guy walk up to his room with a frickin' armory was insane, at least.


If God can kill a guy just for trying to hold up a heavy golden box, I'm sure He has the ability to stop such things.

That's the problem with the bible: gives God superpowers, forgets them when Plot Contrivance demands.


The more humanity forgets that causing a ton of undeserved deaths is wrong, the more we can't have nice things.


I think we define it that way instead of "terrorism is to create terror" (which it certainly did) to ensure certain types of criminals (WASPs) don't get labeled "terrorists".


ISIS would claim credit for hurricanes. They are desperate for attention.


Caring and capable are two different things. I suspect we have greatly overestimated God's powers. Ancient gods and goddesses had limited "jurisdictions", as it were.


Or he could think God told him to do it.


Try us.

Maybe he did think God told him to do it. But if he hadn't loved sin so much instead of God, the devil might not have been in his mind impersonating God.

 

[Jumi]

I think we define it that way instead of "terrorism is to create terror" (which it certainly did) to ensure certain types of criminals (WASPs) don't get labeled "terrorists".

As terrorism is defined it means something that is meant to cause something in the populace through fear. It needs motive. If we know he wanted to stop country music, it would be terrorism. The amount of victims doesn't mean anything in defining the acts, it could be 0 or 5000.

The unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

Otherwise we will have to define many things as terror which so far are not and regular criminal gangs as terrorist organizations. I don't know how useful that would be. It would mean the US is full of terrorist attacks, perhaps daily.

ISIS would claim credit for hurricanes. They are desperate for attention.

If it were true, then there would be a motive and some reason to define it as terrorism. So far, it's the only possible motive presented that I've seen that would make it terrorism.

 

[Enoch07]

None of those heroes stopped the bad guy, even "good guys with guns".

Just the cops that burnished the shooter, forcing him to kill himself because he was a coward.

That the hotel let a guy walk up to his room with a frickin' armory was insane, at least.

Ok you might have a point there.

 

[Skwim]

I believe that evil causes freewill. If evil didn't exist, then we wouldn't have freewill. Moses asked G-d why bad things happen to good people and G-d responded that this is the one thing that no human can ever comprehend. We can rationalize and speculate, but we will never know. I found the article below to be a good read.

http://www.aish.com/h/9av/aas/Wrestling-with-Suffering.html

From your website.

Complete freedom requires complete access to good and evil. In other words, evil enables free will to exist, thus even evil serves the ultimate cause of good.
source
​

One word: Asinine.

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